Music reverberates with start of ECHO season

An assemblage of internationally-acclaimed musicians who have performed at symphony halls around the globe are lined up for the second season of the Cuyamaca College ECHO Chamber Music Series, which kicks off Oct. 11 with a 7:30 p.m. concert featuring a selection of Mozart violin sonatas.

Performances are being underwritten by Sam Ersan, a vice chairman of the San Diego Symphony Board of Directors who has helped transform the chamber music landscape in San Diego County through his support of numerous classical musical organizations. Ersan is a major funder of the Mainly Mozart Festival, the force behind the Sam B. Ersan Chamber Music Fund at UC San Diego and the founder of the Camera Lucida piano quartet and the Myriad Trio. ECHO is an acronym for the East County Harmonics Organization.

Cuyamaca College is fast establishing itself as the premier destination for chamber music in San Diego’s East County through the ECHO Chamber Music Series, and we are honored to host this quality of concerts scheduled for the coming year,” said Taylor Smith, chair of the Cuyamaca College Performing Arts Department. “Never before has this kind of talent been lined up for a full season at the local community college level.”

Cindy Wu on violin and Orion Weiss on piano open the 2018-19 ECHO Chamber Music Series Oct. 11 at Cuyamaca College’s Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre with a selection of Mozart violin sonatas. Wu has enjoyed a versatile international career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her many honors include the Gold Medal at the Stulberg International String Competition and third prize in the Odessa International David Oistrakh Violin Competition. Wu is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in 2010, Weiss has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Toronto Symphony and New York Philharmonic, among others. A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and graduated from the Juilliard School in 2004. Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut in February 1999 performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

The following month, with less than 24 hours’ notice, he stepped in to replace Andre Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the orchestra for an October performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. The second performance in the ECHO Chamber Music Series takes place Nov. 9 with a piano/woodwind performance featuring Jessie Chang and principals from the San Diego Symphony. Music by Beethoven, Stravinsky and other classical masters is on tap.

Six concerts are tentatively on tap for the spring, including: Quicksilver Baroque (Jan. 6); a piano/viola recital with Reiko Uchida and Brian Chen (Jan. 29); the Myriad Trio (Feb. 19); the Smetana Piano Trio (Feb. 22); the Fauré Piano Quartet (March 18); and Augustin Hadelich and Orion Weiss (April 19). Hadelich is playing with the San Diego Symphony in February, but is returning to the region for the April 19 concert at Cuyamaca College.

The 2018-19 ECHO Chamber Music Series concludes May 22 when Wu and Weiss return for another a selection of Mozart violin sonatas.

All concerts will be performed at the Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre. General admission tickets are $15, $10 presale and $5 for students. Visit EchoChamberMusic.org for more information, or call (619) 660-4288.

Cuyamaca College is at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego, 92109.